cell count, headache, diarrhea, vomiting and increase in psa. ask your doctor about axiron. the federal government is shut down, but this time don't blame the politician, it's the weather. snow hitting the east coast all along the i-95 from washington, d.c., to new york. it's an absolute mess out there. >> first of all, there's no agreement. secondly, i would put the chances of an agreement right now at maybe 50-50. >> so there you have it. congressman chris van hollen putting the chances of a budget deal at 50-50. we could see a vote in days. is this congress actually going to accomplish something? and which states are getting passing grades when it comes to gun control? the brady campaign just released its list. it comes nearly a year after newtown and ahead of a meeting at the white house on mental health and guns. good morning, i'm chris

jansing, but we begin this morning with president obama delivering an impassioned tribute to the man who was his inspiration, nelson mandela. tens of thousands listened intently through the driving rain at africa's largest stadium. 90 world leaders in the crowd, including president clinton, secretary clinton, and their daughter, chelsea, along with former presidents bush and president carter. the president's speech, part remembrance, part call to action to follow nelson mandela's example. >> around the world today, men and women are still imprisoned for their political beliefs and are still persecuted for what they look like and how they worship and who they love. that is happening today. and so we too must act on behalf of justice. >> i want to bring in our

company. char lane hunter galt and mark. good morning to both of you. we saw thousands of people in addition to those 90 plus world leaders who walked in the rain, who sat for hours in a driving rain. describe for us the feeling, the emotion there. >> well, it's been going on all week but i think it reached a peak today at the stadium where people saw all of the heads of state coming from all over the world, which just reinforced their own appreciation of nelson mandela. i think that when president obama spoke he spoke to them as a son of africa. at least he got one of the biggest responses because the rain was making it very difficult for most of the speakers to be heard, so people were dancing and cheering and just not really paying a whole lot of attention. but when he spoke, they began to listen and began to cheer. i can only attribute that to the feeling that most africans have,

that he is a son of africa. >> and, mayor, you've met nelson mandela on a couple of occasions. president obama also said that we will never see the likes of nelson mandela again. is he right? >> i think so in a physical sense, but perhaps in this sense of not only spirituality but in the sense of presence and the times in which he led. like gandhi, like king, like lincoln, nelson mandela lived through trials and tribulations and suffered mightily for what his views were yet emerged to be recognized not only as a great leader of south africa, but we see from the tribute, 90 world leaders, four u.s. presidents. the tribute to him is memorable. i cannot remember a funeral of this sort, a memory of this sort for any person in my life.

>> and we are just dpbeginning, there are many more days of tributes to him. the president's speech today struck a lot of personal notes as well. he was inspired by nelson mandela. let me play another clip. >> over 30 years ago, while still a student, i learned of nelson mandela and the struggles taking place in this beautiful land, and it stirred something in me. it woke me up to my responsibilities. to others and to myself. and it set me on an improbable journey that finds me here today. and while i will always fall short of his example, he makes me want to be a better man. >> makes me want to be a better man was a little bit of an an lid around what was written in his speech, which i thought,

frankly, was one of the best things i have heard him do in a long time. both of these men broke color barriers, both first black presidents of their countries. will he continue to inspire, do you think? will he have an impact on politicians here? >> i hope so. i hope he's going to have an impact on elected officials, but on leaders in general. from the notion that it's important to stand on principle. it's also part of life's experience is to have difficulties, trials and tribulations, but to embrace this concept of reconciliation. not based on any weakness, but based on the strength that by bringing people together around an idea, around a notion, around a vision, you can indeed endure progress. i think 30 years ago few people

would have thought south africa would become free, if you will, without the kind of violence and blood shed that you saw in the portugese colonies in southern africa. and the fact that nelson mandela would not only be freed but then lead the nation as its first head of state is truly a remarkable story. so i think he's one who will inspire us, like lincoln, like gandhi, like king, throughout the ages. and i hope he inspires young people all across the nation. and he also inspires because one of the things the president said that was a hallmark of mandela, that it was not just words, it was not just actions, but that these words and actions had to be shaped into laws and institutions. so i think the challenge is for leaders in this country, you can't simply say i embrace mandela without saying because i embrace mandela and what he stood for, i am going to act and make the world better, to

eradicate poverty, to end bad schools, to do those things that are contemporary challenges, that not only we face here in the united states, but the world faces. >> charlayne, we know relationships in the past have been formed, president obama and president bush rode air force one together. we saw president obama shake the hand of raul castro, cuba's president, obviously. i wonder if we could see nelson mandela's influence extend in this way too. when george h.w. bush rode with bill clinton to asia for tsunami relief, the former adversaries became friends. what will be, do you think, his impact going forward as we watch some of the video of the greetings that went on in that crowd among world leaders? >> well, that's the $64,000 question. maybe not in this recession, it might be even less. but i think what's important to remember is that nelson mandela, barack obama, barack obama

himself has often said we stand on the shoulders of giants, and today he praised the shoulders of nelson mandela. but nelson mandela stood on the shoulders of giants, albert latuli who was the first african to win a nobel prize for doing the same kind of thing that nelson mandela did. so i think what's important for this moment is to cherish this moment but to ensure that the lessons of these giants on whose shoulders we all stand get told time and time again, because one day isn't going to do it. it's not going to do it here in south africa where there are myriad problems in this young, almost 20-year-old democracy. it's not going to happen in america or anywhere else in the world until we understand that history and understand what all of those giants, culminating with nelson mandela, were trying to teach us. >> thank you so much for being with us today. it's round two for snow for residents from baltimore to boston this morning. schools were closed throughout the mid-atlantic, even before a

single flake fell this morning. nbc meteorologist bill karins is tracking the storm for us. all those closures must mean it's not looking great on the i-95 corridor. >> chris, what do you do at newark airport for five and a half hours? >> i've been there, i've done that, i never get there without a book. >> a long book, right? yeah, the ground stops were in effect from philadelphia, newark, even la guardia too a five-hour delay. i'm sure they're going to pile up here at jfk. you get the picture. the snow is coming down, causing havoc on the roads. many of the major highways have been doing okay so that's kind of the good news out of this. the snow itself has moved up into new england and covers much of massachusetts, connecticut, northern rhode island. notice boston downtown is 35, providence 34, new york city 33. officially 1 inch in central park in new york, but the roads are just wet. as far as the accumulations go, they're very light. this is not a big blockbuster storm, just a quick hitter in the middle of the day. more inconvenience than anything else. but zero to three, i said zero because downtown d.c. right

around the beltway really didn't get anything in the pavement. but in the suburbs we picked up as much as 4 or 5 inches already and now it's coming to an end. the key to all of this snow, and it's going to end here shortly in the next couple of hours, later tonight it's going to get down to the teens in new england and low 20s. that means the busrbs are in th teens. it's not going to get above freezing for two or three days so whatever you have to do, get out there and get rid of it now. they're not the only spots, chris. this morning was the coldest morning in dallas in two years and it was negative numbers in chicago last night and we'll call it only 11 right now so the whole country is frigid. >> good to stay inside with a book but we have to be here. >> not the airport. >> bill karins, thank you. >> on the couch near a fire. >> it's never a good time to spend five hours at newark. checking the news feed this morning, we can now add popular video games to the list of nsa spy targets. the latest leak from edward snowden shows agents created fake accounts and spied on popular video game communities

like the game world of war craft because terrorists often use common video games featuring fake identities. u.s. and british intelligence agencies worried they might be using the games to somehow communicate with one another, but the classified documents do not hint at any counterintelligence success from infiltrating the games. clashes continue between protesters and police today in the ukrainian capital of kiev. overnight police tore down small tent encampments set up in front of the government buildings. the protests started three weeks ago after the president backed away from deepening ties with the european union. george zimmerman was arrested in november as his girlfriend said zimmerman threatened her with a gun and kicked her out of her own home. now she's saying it never happened, that she may have misspoken. she's asking the judge to drop charges so they can be together. and could washington actually be close to a budget

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we could have the details of a budget deal as early as today, probably not later than tomorrow, and that would give lawmakers a few days to get the proposal through the house before they adjourn for the year on friday. and then it would go to the senate where it needs a handful of republican senators to join democrats to pass it. roger wicker is a member of the budget conference committee and also a member of the senate armed services committsices com. good to see you, senator. >> it's great to be back with you. >> we know what some of the concerns have been with this budget deal, how much of the sequester cuts will be replaced, what they would be, jobless benefits. are you comfortable with where you hear we are right now?

are you trusting of paul ryan to represent republican interests? is there anything you're hearing that would be a deal-breaker for you? >> well, i have a lot of confidence in paul ryan. i think he knows where we need to be and the question is are there the votes to sell this. we need to do a down payment that proves we can do a long-term super deal. what we need to do this week, what we need to do in december is make some long-term entitlement cuts that will free up a little money so we don't have to take the severe defense sequestration cuts and research cuts that are going to be part of the appropriation process for the next fiscal year. that's what we need to do. what i'm hearing is we are going to replace about $65 billion worth of appropriation cuts and we're going to do it sort of

with a collection of cats and dogs, fees on airline passengers, spectrum sales and things like that that don't amount to long-term savings in the next decade. so it's a little disappointing to me. >> entitlements aren't even on the table, are they? >> well, you know, you may have heard more details than i have, but i'm hearing a real case of small ball and nothing that makes me think we've bent the curve at all for the long-term debt. >> well, one of the sticking points for negotiations now, at least for democrats, has been potential cuts to federal worker pensions. if i can, i'd like to play for you what congressman chris van hollen told me here yesterday. >> you cannot be asking federal employees to bear the share of the burden that they're asking for here as part of an agreement when you're not asking, for example, agri businesses that get huge taxpayer subsidies to

have a contribution toward the deal. >> is he right, senator? >> well, i think if we have that sort of rhetoric, it's going to be very hard to have any sort of deal at all. listen, if we take higher middle income and higher income americans, i think on a case-by-case basis we can probably ask for some additional fees at the higher income levels. they score short term enough to cover this, long term they're real savings there. and it's a matter of means testing for people who have the means to kick in a little more for their pensions. if chris van hollen is talking about lower to medium income workers having more or less a tax increase, i would support him on that. but there's got to be some give and take. we're down to the witching hour and we need to get it done.

>> let's talk about the defense authorization bill because lawmakers did agree to a modified version and some of the points are it would provide a modest increase for military service members in pay, bars the obama administration from transferring terrorism detainees from gitmo to the u.s., requires the dishonorable discharge or dismissal of anyone convicted of sexual assaults and stops military commanders from changing the findings of prosecutors, although it doesn't go as far as kirsten gillibrand's bill. do you support the proposal as it is now? >> i do support the proposal. >> will it pass? >> i'm disappointed we didn't get to bring it to the senate floor for members actually to be able to offer amendments and the senate to work its will. but given that it is now the second week of december and we need a bill to support our troops and to give all the authority needed for d.o.d. to protect americans, i think this is the best solution. and in spite of not being able to have regular order, i personally would vote for this sort of approach going forward.

hope we can have a senate that actually allows amendments and full debate. i think senator gillibrand, i would not support her amendment, but i think she deserved a debate and a vote on it. >> senator roger wicker, thank you so much. >> you bet. despite the snow, a flurry of last-minute activity in washington as we've been talking about. are these last-minute deals a sign of progress or are we missing something in transparency when leaders go behind closed doors? we'll talk about that next. e he angie's list saves me a lot of time. after reading all the reviews i know i'm making the right choice. online or on the phone, we help you hire right the first time. with honest reviews on over 720 local services. keeping up with these two is more than a full time job, and i don't have time for unreliable companies. angie's list definitely saves me time and money. for over 18 years we've helped people take care of the things that matter most. join today.

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the day building a play set begins with a surprise twinge of back pain... and a choice. take up to 4 advil in a day or 2 aleve for all day relief. [ male announcer ] that's handy. ♪ he loves me. he loves me not. he loves me. he loves me not. ♪ he loves me! that's right. [ mom ] warm and flaky in 15, everyone loves pillsbury grands! [ girl ] make dinner pop! looks like it's going to be a long december for the senate. lawmakers have a jam-packed to do list. the defense and farm bills, a budget agreement, confirmation of the new federal reserve chairwoman as well as court and cabinet nominees. majority leader harry reid has already threatened working up until christmas, including weekends, while republicans complain they don't have time to properly consider proposals or offer amendments. is this any way to get things

done? e.j. dionne is an msnbc contributor. lois romano, a senior political reporter for politico. good morning. >> good morning. >> we've got about this, e.j., least productive congress in history and now they're trying to jam through this legislation. it does seem like this congress gets very little done unless there's a clock ticking and sometimes after it's expired. the old saying is, is this any way to run a railroad? i was up at 2:00 a.m. >> no, it's not. and i think the big missing piece this year is immigration reform. the senate passed a bill with bipartisan support a long time ago, and the house has just been messing around. it looks like boehner kind of wants to do it an it also looks like a lot of people in his conference don't want to do it. but on this budget deal we've been talking about, i think the conventional wisdom is wrong about this. i am happy they are focused on trying to undo some of the damage that the sequester is

doing to the economic recovery rather than focusing on long-term deficit reduction. we'll have time for that. i think that's an elite concern. if you're out there unemployed right now, what you want is more economic growth so you can pay your renting and buy food. and i think this modest change in the sequester will help a little bit. but i also think they have to do unemployment insurance and i'm worried that they're not going to. >> i'm sure, lois, you heard what senator wicker had to say. for example, because there are a lot of republicans that are saying all of this gets done at the last minute, we don't have time to discuss, to debate. he's been against kirsten gillibrand's proposal for military sexual assaults, he thinks it goes too far, but he said she should have had her chance to have that debated on the floor. is he right about that? >> oh, he's absolutely right about that. but i don't know what you can do about it in this environment. you know, the congress has been in gridlock for almost two years now.

and i think that their efforts now to get a budget is sort of a last-ditch response to the public's really disgust with how awful washington is functioning and i think it's also a realization on the part of republicans that they are taking the biggest hit here. >> well, e.j., is there a way to change what does seem to be over the last couple of years an inevitable process of constant friction, of waiting until the last minute, waiting until the guillotine is hanging over your neck? >> well, i think the biggest problem has been in the house where a group of very, very conservative members, depending on how you want to count them from 40 to 80 to 100 have been able to sort of stop a lot of things and that you haven't been able to bring bills like immigration to the floor that would have a majority, if you could just allow people to vote their consciences. i think this budget deal is a way for the non-hard right

republicans to say, look, we have to govern. we cannot go through another shutdown. that really hurt the republican party. so this will be a small step forward, but it's better stepping forward than stepping back. boy the way, i agree with lois, i wish there were a vote on the gillibrand amendment, because i think that's a really important debate to have on the senate floor. >> but i wonder if given the environment in particular, lois, if there's a strategic advantage for leaders, because basically if you present this stuff at the last minute, it leaves less time for activists, lobbyists, nay sayers to attack. >> that's a very good point, but i think in the larger issue of democracy, it's really bad. it's bad for business to jam things down people's throat and everybody ends up not getting anything that they want. i mean you look at this budget bill, it's not deficit reduction, there's no cuts in entitlements, there's no closing corporate loopholes. we're really just in a holding

pattern here. >> lois romano, e.j. dough a jj thank you both. if you read only one thing this morning, say it isn't so. the rules and regulations are out for the super bowl and partiers take note. no tailgating. now you can eat and drink in your car, you can stand outside your car if you stay within the lines of your parking space but that's it. and wait until you read what kinds of cars will and won't be allowed in the parking lot. it's my must read. it's up on our facebook page, where a common theme from you has been there's an easier way. mary barnett wrote why not a super bowl party at home and then you can eat and drink as much as you want? true enough. let us know what you think. head to facebook/jansingco. which rewards her for responsibly managing her card balance. before receiving $25 toward her balance each quarter for making more than her minimum payment on time each month. tracey got the bankamericard better balance rewards credit card,

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mandela's funeral in south africa signed the bill using the auto pen. it does paul short of what many democrats wanted, tightening loopholes to address new 3-d printing technology but they ran into a brick wall from the gun lobby. meanwhile states have been more successful than the feds on gun control. 21 states enacting new laws to curb gun violence. according to the brady campaign and law center to prevent gun violence. california, new jersey, connecticut, maryland, scoring the highest, followed by new york, massachusetts and hawaii, but 26 states got a grade of f. arizona scored the lowest. let me bring in dan gross, president of the brady campaign to prevent gun violence and psychologist bart rossi. good to see both of you. dan, let's start with your report card. 21 states have passed laws to curb gun violence. what kind of progress is being made? >> tremendous progress. in fact progress that would have been considered unthinkable to a lot of people a year ago. there are eight states that have

passed really meaningful laws. laws like expanding brady background checks to all gun sales. what the studies show is that these laws matter. the seven states with the best grades in the country also have the lowest gun death rates in the country. if the states that passed expanded brady background checks are like the others that have universal or expanded background checks, they'll show 38% fewer deaths of women by intimate partners. so these laws work and they're passing. and the will of the american public is finally being heard on this issue. still have work to do. >> to that point, 26 states were given a failing grade and there's another study out there that finds slightly more gun rights bills were enacted on the state level. 74 compared to 66 restricting guns. are you operating at a net loss still? >> no. i mean the laws that have passed have been far more meaningful to the good than the laws that have been passed to the negative. make no mistake, we're always

swimming against the tide of the corporate gun lobby trying to do everything they can to undermine sensible change on this issue. we've definitely done a lot not only to stem that tide but make tremendous progress. even on the federal level. that manbill that didn't pass, 54 yes evotes. it's only because of the wacky rules of the senate that it didn't pass by a majority. we are on the trajectory to create the kind of change that the american public wants and we're going to stay at it until we get it and do what we call finish the job and pass expanded brady background checks nationally. >> one of the things we heard after newtown was that, and this is again from opponents of reform in our gun laws, this is really a mental health issue, it's not about guns. so this afternoon vice president biden is going to announce that $100 million is going to be available to increase access to mental health services, including $50 million for community health centers to hire

new health professionals, another 50 million to build new health facilities in rural areas. bart, how could this help? >> well, it's a good start, chris, but it's not enough. i think what we need to do is change the face of mental health in america. what i mean by that is we really need to go into middle schools and high schools and have a real program. we ought to introduce mental health and psychology in grade school. i mean i think of adam lanza and i think that he was a grade school kid. suppose he was exposed to the cognitive behavioral approaches that psychologists possess today. suppose his mother had some training in that area as well. we might have had a different result. so we need to get the stigma away from mental health. >> how do we do that, though, because we talk about it a lot. >> we do. >> but it's easier said than done. >> i think it's going take a generation. so if we have a curriculum change in middle school and high school and parents participate in that, over time in a generation that stigma will be minimized and we'll have less

shooters. what we want to do in this society is have less shooters and have more productive kids who grow and become the individuals that they want to be. that's what we're all about. but we're not doing that. and i'm saying that we're going to have more shooters, not less the way we're going. we have an unhealthy state of affairs here in this country vis-a-vis mental health. >> there is the emotional core of this has been families from newtown, for example, following in the footsteps of columbine, the folks at the movie theater in aurora, colorado, and of course gabby giffords. we learned that her super pac plans to play an active role in the 2014 elections. what kind of impact can she, can the others have and how important will these elections be? >> it's one of the most inspiring things that's happened around this issue over the last year is all the new voices that have come to it. a lot of those people have experienced gun violence firsthand, like my family has, like sarah brady obviously has, but very inspiringly a lot of those people have not.

it's mothers concerned about the safety of their children, it's law enforcement concerned with the safety of our streets that they're charged to protect, faith communities coming at this from a moral perspective, and we are confident that if we can bring all of those voices together in a unified front that we are creating that we can make these elections in 2014 big elections. >> dan gross, bart rossi, good to have both of you here. thank you. be careful out there. they were both fighting the snow and midtown traffic to get here. we thank you. parts of the country are still getting hit with a massive winter storm. in fact schools in baltimore, washington and philadelphia are all closed today. new york city was just getting some snow, doesn't look too bad out there right now, but conditions are much worse south of the big apple. the weather channel's jim cantore is in baltimore for us. jim, what can we expect from this storm? >> reporter: yes, chris, the whole storm is moving from this area here up into new england at the present time and we're just kind of on the tail end of this now but it's still snowing out.

but it never got intense enough. one of the things, especially when you have a 32-degree temperature is it's really got to snow hard to accumulate on the surfaces of the roads and the concrete, which is what a city is essentially. so you can see the snow piles here that we have from the last event that gave us 1.6 inches on sunday. remember all those great football games in the snow? up the road a piece, though, we definitely have the snow coming on down. philadelphia saw a couple of inches of snow actually. so this came in a little bit more -- with a little bit more intensity and that's why they accumulated on the ground and we didn't. that's really the key to this whole event. north and west of baltimore, 4 to 6 inches of snow. up in new york, they're just into it but like here in baltimore, because we're right on that fringe temperature of about 32, 33 degrees, it's not snowing intense enough there to really stick on the road surfaces. there's just too much concrete, too much to absorb the heat, believe it or not, from the sun and even yesterday where we came above freezing. so all this heads into new england. we watch that arctic front move through on thursday.

so everybody cools off. any leftover slush will turn to solid ice. even like this pile right here in downtown. then we await another weekend storm which right now, if we were to just make the call from new york down to d.c. and baltimore, it looks like mostly rain. back to you. >> the weather channel's jim cantore. thank you so much, jim. checking the news feed again this morning, it's secretary of state john kerry's turn to face some tough questions about the nuclear deal with iran, after presidents obama and rouhani spent the weekend trying to sell it. the temporarily rolls back iran's nuclear program with some relief from sanctions. but it faces opposition from lawmakers who don't trust iran and because it allows inner to still enrich uranium. john padesta is returning to the white house. he led president obama's transition team after the 2008 election. he'll help obama regain ground after the troubled obama care

rollout. canada is making a claim for the north pole. the government has asked the united nations to extend its border into the arctic by about a million square miles. why? it could be the fact that the north pole holds about a third of the world's undiscovered natural gas and 15% of its oil. that would make santa canadian, but russia, canada and denmark all claim parts of the north pole as their own. the government is finally out of the car business. cnbc's jackie deangeles is here with what's moving your money. jackie, the traders resold its final stake of gm and we just learned that for the first time a woman is going to take the wheel there. >> that's right, good morning, chris. mary barra will succeed dan ackerson. and the u.s. government lost $10.5 billion on the gm bailout but the alternative would have been a lot worse.

the recession could have been a depression, that's according to treasury secretary jack lew. mr. lew said, quote, the economic stakes were high and president obama understood that inaction was not an option. his decision to commit to additional support to gm while requiring them to fundamentally restructure their business was tough, but it was right. now remember that the auto bailout was part of the t.a.r.p. program, the bulk of the funds going to the banks. while the u.s. spent almost $422 billion on bailouts, it's recovered about $433 billion so so far this far in the program, including the loss on gm. so netanya net, the government up. lululemon's founder and chairman out the door. it took a while but he had made some controversial comments earlier this year. >> exactly, the saga of course at lululemon continues. the company's founder and chairman, chip wilson, he is stepping down after an uproar over these comments that he made critiquing the customers' bodies.

what he said with respect to to that controversy over the sheer workout pants was that, frankly, some women's bodies just don't actually work for the pants. it's really about the rubbing through the thighs, how much pressure there is over a period of time and how much they use it. to me, chris, as a lulu customer, i can tell you that criticizing the customer, not okay. >> i don't care who you work for, not a good idea. cnbc's jackie deangeles, thank you. especially when it comes to women's thighs, leave it alone. we all have our pet peeves stuck on an air lean. expedia is out with its great new survey about the most annoying airplane etiquette violators. number five, chatty kathy, number four, the boozer, third, let's call him the aromatic passenger. the runner up is the rear seat kicker and going along with that, the worst fliers are inattentive parents. a link to the full list is up at jansing.msnbc.com. as a business owner, i'm constantly putting out fires.

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unemployment may be more than a frustration, it may be aging you. a new study shows people who are jobless for more than two years were twice as likely to have short telemers, which are dna markers linked to aging. they are associated with higher risk of age-related diseases and earlier deaths. at a time when entitlement programs are under fire from republicans, a new study finds they have helped put a debt in the u.s. poverty rate. the studies from columbia university finds that programs like food stamps and unemployment insurance help reduce the percentage of americans in poverty. its gone from 26% in 1967 to 16% in 2012, so that's a 10% drop over the last half century. and it's ammunition for

democrats who argue these safety net programs work. i'm joined by richard fowler, advocacy director for young democrats for america and john fehry. john, i don't know if you heard senator wicker earlier, he was talking about wanting to get cuts to entitlement programs in part to pay for defense programs. but are studies like this proof, john, that these programs are critical to keeping the poverty rate down? >> well, we do have a need for a social safety net. it also needs to lift people up out of poverty and not keep them in poverty. there's another problem here, chris, and that is that we are $13 trillion in debt and we have to manage both these things. we need a strong safety net but also fiscal responsibility and we need to make sure that people have as many incentives as possible to get a job and we also need to have an economy that grows jobs and we haven't had that in the last five years. >> well, richard, opponents will

argue that these assistant programs increase dependencies and don't help the poor escape poverty. paul ryan put it this way, he said safety net programs threaten to become a hammock that lulls citizens into lives of complacency and dependency. so the bottom line is are they an expensive band-aid rather than a real solution? >> well, they are a real solution and i think john is right, we do need fiscal responsibility. it is fiscally irresponsible for us to cut many of these safety net programs which allow folks to pursue the american dream. think about that young single mother at home depending on section 8 housing so she can get a job and send her kids to school. and i think when lbj created these programs it was created with the idea this will help americans pull themselves up by their bootstraps. what republicans want and people like paul ryan want is you to pull yourself up by your bootstraps and give you no straps. that's sadly part of the problem. >> john, one of the things you hear them talk about is the private sector needs to provide more of this, churches and

charitable organizations. arguably we're a country that has the most generous people in the world, so how much more can people be expected to give? and how many more services can churches and charities be asked to provide? >> well, you're right. the private sector does provide a lot of help and probably could do a little bit more. the government does have an essential role here. i think there also has to be an understanding that self responsibility comes into this, personal responsibilities. people have to also learn the good habits of getting out of poverty and they also need economic breaks. they need to be able to get a job. all these things play in. i think that republicans -- they are taking an approach here they have to better explain it and i think it has to be a more wholesale approach and also part of this is education. you need to improve schools and give people ways to get out of poverty. both sides need to come together on a common sense agenda to make that happen. >> well, then the problem

becomes if you haven't found a job, do you just cut off their unemployment benefits? i mean where is this balance? where do we find, richard, this sort of common ground? >> oh, i think we need a bipartisan approach and i think what we've seen from president obama and the american jobs act a couple of years ago was that, a bipartisan approach, giving tax credits to employers to hire individuals and at the same time forcing individuals to go out and get the job training they need. unfortunately, the great idea like this gets stalled in the house of representatives. it doesn't move forward and the american people suffer. and that's a sad reality of the situation. what we really need is bipartisan solutions, people coming together, people working together to uplift and end poverty. we're the richest country in the world and ending poverty should be one of our top priorities because that's how we maintain our global leadership worldwide is by ending poverty across this country. sadly, i don't think the focus is here in washington like it needs to be. >> good to see both of you,

thanks. today's tweet of the day comes from pope francis. if we see someone who needs help, do we stop? there is so much suffering and poverty and a great need for good samaritans. you know, ronny... folks who save hundreds of dollars by switching to geico sure are happy. and how happy are they jimmy? i'd say happier than a bodybuilder directing traffic. he does look happy. get happy. get geico. fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance. in controlling yournow overactive bladder symptoms. the new oxytrol for women patch. the first and only over the counter treatment

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to "politics now" and former congressman alan grayson lost more than $18 million. a phony investor took his money in a ponzi scheme. grayson was more than 100 victims. sarah palin is returning to reality tv. she will host reque"amazing ame with sarah palin" beginning next april. her old tv show aired for just eight episodes in 2010. mitt romney's bypassing the small screen for a movie. netflix picking up a documentary about romney's quest for the white house called "mitt." it covers his presidential ambitions from 2006 to 2012. and another presidential hopeful and another medium. comic book fans can now watch out for herman cain.

bluewater productions is rele e releasing a new comic book of his life story. it's caught to have his catch phrase 999 somewhere, doesn't it? speaking of books, senator ted cruz is featured in a new coloring book called "u.s. senator ted cruz to the future." it's an educational tool that will be used in schools. and a group of republicans fighting for peace and quiet in the friendly skies, introducing a bill that would ban in-flight phone calls. the fcc said last month they would look into ending the ban. and that's going to wrap up this hour of "jansing & co." i'm chris jansing. thomas roberts is up next. welcome back, thomas. >> thanks so much. the agenda next hour, we are remembering nelson mandela. this memorial service to honor the icon of equality and how in death nelson mandela is bringing together very unlikely interactions like one we have with president obama shaking the hand of cuba's president, raul castro. representative maxine waters

attended this service and she'll join me to talk about her observations. on a different note back here at home, george zimmerman's girlfriend says never mind. why she says those domestic assault charges against him should be dropped. and let it not snow. how a wet and messy winter storm is crippling the midatlantic region. we've got the details on just how bad it could get straight ahead. ssbrewing ♪ ♪ 10 straight days raining ♪ 9 hailstorms pounding ♪ 5 mysteriously heavy holiday fruitcakes ♪ ♪ 4 actual tree houses ♪ 3 blackouts ♪ 2 weird to mention ♪ and a roaming horde of carolers ♪ ♪ with my exact same route [ female announcer ] no one delivers the holidays like the u.s. postal service. priority mail flat rate is more reliable than ever. and with improved tracking up to 11 scans you can even watch us get it there. and look for our limited edition holiday stamps. of their type 2 diabetes with non-insulin victoza®. for a while, i took a pill to lower my blood sugar, but it didn't get me to my goal.

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what a magnificent soul it was. >> president obama eulogizing nelson mandela as one of the greatest leaders of our time. and in south africa, rain is a blessing. the rain pouring down on joe hanesburg as tens of thousands mourned mandela's death. hi, everybody, good morning. i'm thomas roberts. mandela remembered as a prisoner, a president and giant of history. president obama was greeted with cheers as he first sat down at the stadium. it was a chance to memorialize one of his personal heroes. >> while i will always fall short of his example, he makes me want to be a better man. he speaks to what's best inside us. >> and then one of those moments where time seemed to slow was that handshake betweenre